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[h3][color=b16edd]Reina Mori[/color][/h3]
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Reina nodded along with a  smile at Mamoru’s suggestions, thinking it’d be fun to study villains with her and hear her take on how to potentially defeat them. Reina thanked the girl for visiting her, making sure to enter her phone number into her phone as soon as she could. Halfway through the creation of the new contact, Mamoru dropped her parting line.

[color=pink]“Don’t do anything naughty now!”[/color]

The purple-haired girl froze up for a moment and blushed. After what felt like a very long second of silence, Reina saw an opportunity to tease Takeshi—something she was growing quickly fond of doing. She tossed a sideways glance towards the boy.

[color=b16edd]“M-Maybe when I’m recovered...”[/color] she said, botching the self-confident delivery she had been going for, causing her to give a sheepish giggle at the whole situation. 

The girl allowed herself to monopolize Takeshi’s time for a while longer, but eventually the time to part came. She watched as he made his way to the door, deciding after a second to follow after him.

[color=b16edd]“Visit me again if you have the time,”[/color] she said as she caught up to him, gripping his sleeve to stop him for a second so she could reach up to kiss his cheek. She smiled sweetly as she gently pushed him onwards and gave a small wave. 

[hr]
Reina laid in her hospital bed, the room dark save for a slice of moonlight cutting through the curtains that covered the window and the dim lights from the hallway creeping underneath the door frame.

The girl was mostly still, though her fingers and toes flexed slowly and rhythmically. It almost felt like it was against her will—she knew she could stop, but she didn’t, even though it kind of hurt, especially when she moved her right hand. The pain reverberated up her arm and across her chest that rose and fell in time with each wave of discomfort.

She simply stared at the ceiling. Like her moving fingers and toes, her eyes refused to close. Her gaze inspected the random tiny black spots spattered across the off-white tiles, finding various images by connecting the dots in her mind. Her mind went through the events that had occurred, and the girl noted what points she seemed to get hung up on.

	The collateral damage.

She’d brought down two buildings by pushing her quirk. It was a mercy that she hadn’t injured any innocents. The girl knew if she had, she’d never be able to forgive herself. The property damage was bad, but more justifiable in her mind. Her classmates live had been in danger. Michiko and Takeshi were more important than all the buildings in the world. Still, though she was making progress, it was still proof that she didn’t have as much control over her quirk as she should. It was too destructive to not have fully under her thumb.

	Takeshi’s arm.

It wasn’t something she could have done anything about. Reina knew that. She knew that. Yet still… she couldn’t stand that she felt like there was nothing she could have done. She should’ve been stronger to prevent it from happening in the first place. Thankful though she was that she had been able to help keep him and Michiko safe, it wasn’t enough. Reina had been watching Takeshi a lot when he had visited her, of course—it was hard not too, considering how their relationship had changed, and her general infatuation with the boy. Even with that, it didn’t take a huge leap in logic to realize the implications of his injury, and how they might be affecting his mental negatively. She needed... to do somewhat she could to help, and she needed to make sure neither he or any of her friends would ever be hurt like that again.

	Rakshasa’s death, and the rest of the villains she had fought.

It was a strange feeling to begin to understand she had played a large part in the loss of a life. Her instinct was that the destructive man didn’t particularly deserve to live, but realizing that was her stance on the matter was troubling in a way. It was troubling that she thought on his death with some level of satisfaction. He’d been a threat to her life, though. Her or him. He’d been a threat to Takeshi’s life, and had tried to take Michiko away. Them or him. When she thought back to that, the anger in her chest flared again, and she understood that that was the reason for her positive feelings surrounding the man’s passing. It was the danger he had posed to Takeshi and Michiko—of course, she already knew that that had been what truly angered her, but realizing it was also the reason for her being okay with the loss of a life brought her some peace.

And anyway, she was a monster. She’d be the most just monster of all. She’d be a monster that protected those she loved, but she’d always be a monster all the same. Being satisfied with the death of a mass murderer was hardly the worst thing she’d done in her life.

Reina awoke. She realized she had fallen asleep at some point only because of the images of dreams she had been having fading from her mind—a jumble she could hardly make out anymore. Takeshi had been there, and had made her feel warm. The members of his family who were after him and Michiko. Rakshasa was gone, but the rest weren’t. They wouldn’t so much as breath in Takeshi or Michiko’s general direction as long as Reina was alive. 

The now familiar flare of anger prompted Reina to sit up in her bed. She reached over to the bedside table to check the time on her phone—not even 3am yet. The girl sighed. It was another long night with her thoughts. At least tonight her thoughts were a little different than they had been for her first days in the hospital. They were also a bit more pleasant overall—especially when they drifted to Takeshi, which is where her mind seemed to be dwelling most often.

With a faint blush on her cheeks for no one to see in the darkness, and some butterflies in her stomach fighting with the flare of anger in her chest, Reina placed her earbuds in her ear one at a time with her good hand and hopped off the bed lightly. She began to pace around, in an attempt to burn off the restless energy that had made its permanent home within her especially since the incident.